PUNE: A face saving century from captain Rohit Motwani enabled Maharashtra to reach 282 for 7 on first day of their Ranji Trophy Plate division game against Services at New Delhi on Wednesday.

After winning the toss and batting first, the State top order failed yet again, once too often for State’s Aussie coach Shaun Williams, before Motwani, Ankit Bawne and Shrikant Mundhe gave the innings some respctability.

With openers Harshad Khadiwale and Nikhil Paradkar alongwith Kedar Jadhav, all gone with just 20 runs on the board, the decision to bat first looked a terrible one. IPL star Kedar Jadhav’s poor form continued as he failed to open his account. Last game’s centurion Sangram Atitkar looked good for a similar knock, before being dismissed for 40.

With Ankit Bawne and Ganesh Gaikwad not scoring too big, the visitors looked in serious trouble at 145 for 6. Wicketkeeper Motwani then took control of the game, adding 125 invaluable runs for the seventh wicket. Motwani’s smart 113-run knock came off 149 deliveries, with the left-hander hitting 15 fours. It also was his maiden first-class century after having crossed the half century mark on eight previous occasions.

Delhi in command

Delhi bowlers stuck to a disciplined line to bowl out Railways for 259 on the first day of the Ranji Trophy Super League encounter at the Roshanara ground. At stumps, stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan and Unmukt Chand knocked off 48 runs in eight overs.

Punjab 322 for 2

Punjab’s top-order fired in unison as the visitors amassed 322 for the loss of two wickets in their first innings against Haryana on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match. Sarul Kanwar (88), Uday Kaul (75 not out) and Mandeep Singh (88 not out) blasted half centuries after they were invited to bat.

SCOREBOARD

Maharashtra 1st innings

H Khadiwale c Desai b N Singh 12 (27b 2x4)

N Paradkar c T Khan b Yadav 4 (15b)

S Atitkar c Y Singh b A Singh 40 (83b 5x4)

K Jadhav lbw b N Singh 0 (4b)

A Bawne lbw b N Singh 45 (117b 4x4)

R Motwani lbw b Yadav 113 (149b 15x4)

G Gaikwad b N Singh 0 (10b)

S Mundhe batting 51 (123b 8x4)

D Waghmare batting 5 (16b 1x4).

Extras (b 5, lb 1, w 2, nb 4) 12.

Total (7 wickets; 90 overs) 282.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-20, 3-20, 4-83, 5-129, 6-145, 7-270.

Bowling:

S Yadav 27-3-69-2

N Singh 21-5-61-4

Amrinder Singh 25-3-78-1

Pratik Desai 1-0-5-0

A Kush 15-1-54-0

Yashpal Singh 1-0-9-0.

Sakàl Times/PTI

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04 March 2015

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